Hi my foreign English speaking friends! Here I’ve created a list of the most important English small talk phrases so that you never have situations when you get stuck when bumping into someone on the street or greeting your colleagues in the morning!

Here you’ll also find a good number of English phrases you can use to respond to typical greetings. And even more – some of the phrases below will help you add more substance to what you’re saying to your chat partner and also help you take time and think over the question.

At the end of the list you’ll find typical good-bye phrases and you’ll definitely find them handy when finishing off a conversation or even if you want to get rid of the person you’re chatting with! 🙂

There’s also industry small talk phrases – and they’re definitely going to come in handy in work-related situations. Whenever you want to ask your work colleague to cover you for a couple of hours and tell them you’re going to keep a low profile because you went out the night before – all this is covered in the industry small talk section!

So, click on the links below and they’ll take you to the respective section of English small talk phrases! 😉

Have you ever wondered what true English fluency was? It’s all about communicating with other English speakers in the most natural way possible. To make the communication effective, you have to get rid of the habit to translate the things you hear and the things you want to say at the back of your mind. You’re so used to your native language that it can kill your fluency in English no matter how many new words you learn.

As you may already know, the English Harmony blog is all about showing you how English fluency can be achieved by doing loads of spoken English practice in combination with acquiring plenty of naturally occurring speech patterns and using them.

And in case you’re wondering – what the heck is a “naturally occurring speech pattern” anyway? – just let me spell it out for you – it’s a phrase, an expression, a word combination.

So, this time around we’re going to look at English phrases involving the word TIME, and there’s a good chance that you haven’t heard all of them so this is going to be the perfect opportunity for you to expand your English phrase pool.

And please bear in mind – make sure to repeat these phrases out loud and say at least a few sample sentences. Just because you’re reading them, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to use them, you’re just going to add them to your passive vocabulary.

This time around let’s look at something that would come in handy for every single foreign English speaker out there. Well, it’s not that those other phrases wouldn’t be useful for everybody, it’s just that I’m trying to point out the fact that the phrases we’re going to look at today can be definitely used by all of us at least once a week!

Why once a week?

Well, guess what – Friday happens once a week, and for as long as you’ve got some work colleagues to talk to, you can always make sure to use this Friday phraseology to the best of your ability!

So, without further ado, let’s start looking at the different Friday expressions you’ll be able to use at work – and not only!

On 9 occasions out of 10, foreign English speakers don’t consider their English skills good enough for their professional life and career development.

Statements such as the following one: “I would really like to try and get a job in another industry, but my English isn’t good enough…” can be heard so often that it’s become somewhat like a mantra.

In other words, foreigners tend to sell their English skills short big time, and it’s all because of them being ashamed and being afraid of sounding stupid. As a result, people who otherwise would be having promising careers, are instead leading lives of quiet misery.

But it shouldn’t be that way.

For as long as your English is good enough for you to be able to convey the message and to understand what you’re being told, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t keep trying and aiming for that better job, for that promotion, for that training course – no matter how crazy it may sound at that particular moment in time.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of non-native English speakers working across the industries with intermediate spoken English skills!

So, if you’re one of those foreigners secretly dreaming of starting something new in your life and never taking any action – read this article, this may turn out to be the best advice you’ve ever received!

What I’ve observed over the years while being around other foreign English speakers is – oftentimes people would become really emotional about certain aspects of the English language and have heated debates over things that don’t really matter that much when it comes to being able to speak fluent English.

Picture this – you’re sitting at the table during the lunch break with your friends, and the conversation is developing something along these lines:

“Mmmm… I think this is the best chicken curry I’ve ever had, don’t you think so?”

“Oh really? Is that how they speak in England? Well, but now you’re living in the States, so I think you should start pronouncing the ‘TH’ sound properly!”

“Well, I haven’t really thought about it… I haven’t really had any problems because of that, people understand me just fine…”

“But it’s plain wrong dude! It’s not proper English, and considering you’re dealing with customers all day long, I really think this is something you should work on!”

“Hey Max, do you really think it’s that important? I think David’s English is really good, and anyone can understand him just fine!”

“Man, you just don’t get it… There are certain rules of the English language that you just can’t ignore, you know?”

And so this argument goes on and on because one of the friends has a very strong opinion on certain aspects of the language, and instead of having a nice chat about the tasty chicken, the time gets wasted on arguing over something that is, as a matter of fact, of no importance at all.

Do you see where I’m coming from?

Life is too short to be spent on talking about stuff that doesn’t matter, however, I’ve noticed this type of thing happen time and time again among foreign English speakers – and not only!

How many times you HAVEN’T SAID something in English because you’ve been ashamed?

I bet it’s too many to count, my friend foreign English speaker, and that’s the prime reason why your fluency isn’t at the level you’d like it to be.

Well, of course, it could be the case that you’re quite happy with your level of English fluency, but the chances are – if that were the case, you wouldn’t be reading this blog, am I not right?

Anyway, let’s not get side-tracked from the main subject which is all about being ashamed of your level of English and NOT speaking enough.

Imagine the following scenario.

Two foreign English speakers move to an English speaking country, take up jobs and settle down to live in that country for a good few years.

The first foreigner takes every opportunity to open his mouth and say something in English. Every time his boss, co-workers or customers ask him something, he always tries to say something extra, something to keep the conversation going. And he also doesn’t miss a chance to start a chat with others.

Now, the second foreigner is also doing alright, however, unlike the first one, he will only say the bare minimum that people ask him. He will never start a conversation, will never say anything extra, and it’s all because he’s ashamed of making mistakes and sounding stupid.

You think the first foreigner isn’t making any mistakes? Oh boy, of course he is! We all do, it’s an integral part of being a foreign English speaker – you are bound to make lots of mistakes before achieving a decent level of fluency. Yet, the first guy just DOESN’T CARE.

I’ve been publishing videos and articles on this blog for years on end, and if you’ve been following my website for some time you’ll know that my main focus is spoken English development because I write for those foreigners who are struggling to speak fluently while being quite good at other aspects of their English.

One of the main aspects of oral fluency development is phraseology acquisition – or if put in simple terms – building your vocabulary of English word combinations and phrases (why am I not talking about individual English words? Read THIS article to find out why!).

Spaced repetition is by far the most effective way of learning those phrases, and it’s based on the following simple principles:

You repeat a phrase a number of times until it sticks with you and you can repeat it automatically;

You review that phrase later on that day, then the following day, and then in a few days’ time.

Simple as that! 😉

That’s what I’ve been doing to build my own English phraseology, and that’s what all my customers are doing when improving their English with help of the English Harmony System.

One closely related subject that I haven’t touched upon on my blog, however, is different memorization techniques that you might use to memorize your English phraseology even faster and more efficiently, and that’s exactly what I’m going to look at in this article!

Builds your English confidence - no more situations when you stop and hesitate when speaking English!

I’m Robby, and I’m a non-native English speaker. Throughout my entire life I’ve always wanted to speak in English fluently, but because of the way English is taught in schools, I always struggled with my spoken English.

Then, one fine day, after years of constant pursuit of English fluency, I realized the key aspect of spoken English improvement – learning English phrases and word combinations instead of studying grammar rules and trying to construct sentences in your head from scratch!

If you’re interested in improving your English fluency too, please check out the English Harmony System which is a product I created to help all my fellow foreigners to better their spoken English and achieve so much more in professional, social and personal life.